Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 50, September 2015, Pages 211-220
Computers in Human Behavior

Individual and social benefits of online discussion forums

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.067Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Online discussion forums have benefits at individual and society level.

  • They are positively linked to well-being for stigmatised group members.

  • Online discussion forum use is linked to offline civic engagement in related areas.

  • Identification with other forum users mediates the above relationships.

  • Online discussion forums are of greater applied importance than has been realized.

Abstract

There has been much debate surrounding the potential benefits and costs of online interaction. The present research argues that engagement with online discussion forums can have underappreciated benefits for users’ well-being and engagement in offline civic action, and that identification with other online forum users plays a key role in this regard. Users of a variety of online discussion forums participated in this study. We hypothesized and found that participants who felt their expectations had been exceeded by the forum reported higher levels of forum identification. Identification, in turn, predicted their satisfaction with life and involvement in offline civic activities. Formal analyses confirmed that identification served as a mediator for both of these outcomes. Importantly, whether the forum concerned a stigmatized topic moderated certain of these relationships. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical and applied implications.

Keywords

Online discussion forum
Well-being
Civic engagement
Activism
Social identity
Stigmatised group membership

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